Mute (Completed)

Chapter Seven

11 hours later, I stumbled out of the stuffy plane and into the Paris International Airport. Mari bounced out after me, completely unfazed from the trip, and bursting with energy.

"Lets go get berets! Lets go eat a baguette!" She cried, pulling on my arm. I groaned in response, rubbing my bloodshot eyes. Laura and Karen stumbled out next.

"Lets go do something!" Mari said, jumping up and down. Karen cracked her back and grunted.

"Slow down, there buckaroo." She said. "The first thing that we are going to do is find our hotel room and go to bed. The times are different here, and you got to get adjusted. "

Mari frowned, her bottom lip pushing out, pouting.

"Aw, come on!" She cried. "Not a single croissant?" I giggled at Mari's puppy dog face. I must admit, she was pretty good at it. The way she widened her eyes innocently and blinked slowly, she looked adorable!

Laura rolled her eyes, but couldn't help herself from laughing.

"You're not fooling me." She said. "But, tell you what, first thing tomorrow, I will buy both of you croissants. My treat." Mari brightened a little. She bounced ahead of the group and looked around the airport excitedly.

"Such culture!" Said Laura to Karen. "Oh, Kay! You are brilliant to have the idea to go on this vacation."

"I know." Karen replied, jokingly. "Like usual." Laura sighed playfully and batted at Karen. They were so cute together, they almost looked like little kids again. 

Just watching them together was enough to put a smile on my face. Unfortunately, that smile was quickly replaced with a small frown. A dull ache pushed against my heart. Why can't I be in love like that? What was wrong with me? And then I remembered what was wrong. My voice. I shook the thought out of my head. I was in freaking Paris, for crying out loud! I forced a smile and bounded up to Mari, who was leaving the airport.

I walked out of the airport and was immediately blinded by the Paris light. I shielded my eyes and squinted into the day. Paris, though very cool, wasn't what I had expected.

I expected to walk into a paradise, with French music playing in the background. I expected everyone to be wearing berets and mimes performing at every street corner. You know, like the movies. Instead, I saw a busy road and lots of people roaming outside. French people, but regular people nonetheless. I glanced disappointingly at Mari, but of course, she still seemed he excited self.

"Girls." Said Laura, catching up to us outside, "Karen's renting a car. We're going to head to our hotel soon." A little while later, Karen appeared holding car keys.

"The car is in the airport parking lot, waiting for us." She said, and we headed off to the hotel.

"Holy crap!" Mari said in awe, as she stepped out of the rental car. We had arrived at our hotel, and let me tell you, it was totally holy-crap worthy. It loomed overhead, at least 5 stories high. The whole this was like a palace, really. 

A man dressed fancily opened the giant doors, and we stepped into a whole new universe. The floors were checkered marble, and there seemed to be a chandelier on every ceiling surface. The farther we walked in, the bigger the space seemed to be. This was luxury at it's finest.

"The Shangri-la Hotel." Karen said to Mari, who looked as breathless as I felt. "This is were your mother and I got married."

Mari turned to me as Karen and Laura walked up to the front desk.

"I looked this place up in the car." She whispered to me. "It's got a spa, a gym with trainers, a swimming pool, four different restaurants and four ballrooms. The average cost for a room here is 1,464 dollars." I choked. 1,464 dollars per night. That was 10,248 for a week! Karen and Laura returned, holding four key cards.

"Here are your keys." Karen said. "We had to pay extra for two more keys, so don't lose them!" She passed out the cards. I tucked mine into the case of my iPod Touch. "Now." Laura said, briskly. "I don't know about any of you, but I need a nap!"

I hadn't realized how tired I was until we walked up to our suite. When Mari told me that our room was good, I didn't realize how good, "good" was. Our suite was two whole floors, with a huge balcony overlooking Paris. I was delighted to find that looking out onto the balcony, you could see the whole Eiffel Tower, towering above. But, my favorite part was the bathrooms. 

There was one to each of the three bedrooms, each complete with a huge bathtub, a large walk-in shower, a heated floor and a a flat screen television. A TV in the bathroom! However, I didn't have any time to fully appreciate the suite before I flopped onto my King size bed, exhausted. Boy. I thought as I drifted to sleep. This is going to be awesome.*

Author's Note: 

This isn't made up. Everything written about the suite is exactly like the actual one in Paris. Even the TV in the bathroom. :)